Drive mechanism for shaker conveyers



Jan. 3, 1939. w. w. SLOANE 2,142,382

DRIVE MECHANISM FUR SHAKER CONVEY ERS Fil ed Jan, 9, 1936 4 Sheets-sheaf 1 diow Jan. 3, 1939. w. w. SLOANE- DRIVE MECHANISM FORSHAKER CONVEYERS 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 FiledJan. 9, 1956 I I Jan. 3, 1939. w. w. SLOANE I DRIVE MECHANISM FOR SHAKER'CONVEYERS Filed Jan. 9, 1936 4 Sheets-Sheet 15V Jan. 3, 1939. w. w. SLOANE DRIVE MECHANISM FOR SHAKER CONVEYERS 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed Jan. 9, 1936 7.9 I Wei/02: o/M

zzj [222 Patented Jan. 3, 1939 DRIVE MECHANISM FOR SHAKER CONVEYERS William W. Sloane, Chicago, Ill., assignor to Goodman Manufacturing Company, Chicago,

111., a corporation of Illinois Application January 9, 1936, Serial No. 58,309

15 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in drive mechanisms for shaker conveyers of the type utilized for conveying loose material such as coal and more particularly to drive mechanisms in which the violence of the conveying action may be varied.

My invention has as its principal objects to provide a more efficient conveyer drive mechanism than formerly by providing an improved mechanism of a novel and simplified construction for correcting the angular velocity of a crank so it may rotate at a predetermined variable acceleration, and by driving an angularly movable reciprocable member from this crank for reciprocably driving a conveyer pan line. Another object of my invention is to provide a conveying mechanism wherein the intensity of the conveying action may readily be changed to accommodate the drive to varying grades or lengths or weights of pan lines without increasing the maximum stresses on the drive.

An application, Serial No. 57,730, filed January 6, 1936, discloses a drive mechanism operating on principles similar to those of my present invention. My present invention, however, differs from my prior invention in the means for varying the angular velocity of the crank.

Other objects of my invention will'appear from time to time as the accompanying specification proceeds.

My invention may be more clearly understood with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein:

Figure 1 is a top plan view of a shaker conveyer drive constructed in accordance with my invention with certain parts broken away and shown. in horizontal section;

Figure 2 is a side elevation of the device shown in Figure 1, with certain parts broken away and shown in vertical section;

Figure 3 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional View taken substantially along line 33 of Figure 1;

Figure 4 is an enlarged detail horizontal sectional view showing certain details of the mechanism for varying the angular velocity of the drive crank;

Figure 5 is an enlarged fragmentary detail sectional view taken substantially along line 55 of Figure 1;

Figures 6, '7 and 8 are diagrammatic views illustrating various arrangements of the mechanism for effecting drive motions of varying intensities; and

Figure 9 is a diagram or graph showing certain hypothetical velocity curves of shaker motions attained by the shaker mechanism illustrated in Figure 1.

In the drawings, the preferred embodiment of my invention illustrated is shown as comprising 5 a shaker or jigging conveyer drive mechanism, indicated generally by reference character It]. Said drive mechanism is mounted on a base plate H which is adapted to be held in position on the mine floor in the usual manner, as by a plurality 10 of jacks (not shown) adapted to be interposed between the mine roof and mine floor.

The drive mechanism l8 comprises a housing and support frame 12 mounted on the base plate H in a suitable manner. A motor I5 is secured 15 to a support bracket l3 extending outwardly from one side wall of said housing adjacent the lower end thereof. Said motor is of an ordinary electrical construction and is provided with a motor pinion l6 disposed within said housing which meshes with and drives a spur gear ll on a transversely extending shaft l8 mounted in said housing. A pinion I9 is keyed on said last-named shaft and meshes with and drives a spur gear 20 mounted on a transversely extending shaft 2|. Said shaft is journaled at its ends in suitable antifriction bearings supported in bearing support members 22, 22 mounted in opposite side walls of said housing. A pinion 23 is keyed on said lastnamed shaft and meshes with and drives a spur gear 24. Said spur gear is herein shown as being a ring gear mounted on a hub 25. Said hub is mounted on a transversely extending shaft 26 eccentric of its center so that said spur ring gear may drive a spur gear 21 at a variable angular velocity in a manner which will hereinafter more clearly appear. Said last mentionied gear is keyed on a transversely extending crank 29 for rotatably driving said crank at a corresponding Variable angular velocity.

The crank 29 is journaled at its ends in suitable bearing support means carried by opposite side walls of the housing l2 and forms a means for reciprocably driving the conveyer pan line through a relatively short connecting rod 30 jour- C naled thereon. The opposite end of said connecting rod is pivotally connected to the lower end of a rocking arm 3| keyed on a rocking shaft 32 mounted in opposite side walls of the housing I2 in a suitable manner. Suitable rocking arms i 33, 33 are keyed to opposite ends of said rocking shaft and held thereto by means of suitable nuts 34, 34. Said rocking arms are operatively connected with a conveyer trough 35 of the conveyer trough line for reciprocably driving said trough 551.

line by means of suitable puller arms 36, 36 (see Figure 2). Said puller arms are pivotally connected to the upper ends of said rocking members at one of their ends and pivotally connected to a connecting member 31 at their opposite ends, which connecting member is secured to said conveyer trough and extends outwardly from opposite sides thereof.

It has been found that a combination of two or more drive elements, each of which would reciprocate a trough line in such a manner as to move material therealong, will give a final motion having a material moving ability which is superior to that of either of the two drive elements taken by themselves. Accordingly, the combination of the crank 29, driven at a variable angular velocity, with the rocking arm 3| reciprocably driven from said crank by the relatively short connecting rod 30, serves to improve the final conveying action of the drive with little increase in size thereof. The foregoing arrangement also permits the trough line to be driven by the puller arms 36, 36 which may be placed parallel with the pan line instead of a pitman connected to the crank 29, which arrangement will cause the trough line to jump unless provisions are made to keep it in place.

With the arrangement just described, the crank 29 would rotate at a uniform angular velocity if the gear 24 were journaled for rotation about its center, assuming the speed of the drive motor therefor to be constant. If said crank should be driven at a uniform angular velocity, the angularity of the parts driven thereby would be such that a conveyer trough line driven thereby would be reciprocated in such a manner that material would move therealong, even though the conveying movement of the trough line would be poor. As the angular velocity of saidcrank is corrected tovary at predetermined parts of its cycle of rotation, the velocity of the conveyer trough line will be varied, and as this variation in angular velocity of said crank from a uniform angular velocity is increased, the conveying effect thereof will be correspondingly increased.

It should be understood that if the motion of the crank 29 be corrected so as to be rotated at a predetermined variable angular velocity, in the manner which will hereinafter more clearly appear as this specification proceeds, and that if this crank should be connected directly to a conveyer trough line by means of a pitman, as in my prior application, Serial No. 706,787, which is now Patent No. 2,077,811, that said crank would reciprocably drive said trough in such a manner as to move material therealong; the intensity of the conveying action imparted to said trough being determined by the extent of variation in the angular velocity of said crank from a uniform angular velocity.

With reference now in particular to the novel means for correcting the angular velocity of the crank 29, the hub 25 of the spur gear 24 is mounted in suitable spaced ball bearings 39, 39 which are mounted in blocks 40, 40 spaced laterally from opposite sides of said gear. Said blocks are slidably guided in vertically disposed rectilinear guides 4|, 4| to permit said gear to move vertically in said guides. The hub 25 of said spur gear is also mounted eccentric of its center on a pair of aligned eccentrically bored sleeves 43, 43 mounted on the transversely extending shaft 26. Each of said sleeves is provided with a lug 45 adjacent its outer end which is adapted to engage one of a plurality of radial notches 46a,

46b or 450 formed in said hub. Said lugs are held in engagement with said notches by means of a suitable nut and bolt 47 extending through said sleeves and abutting the outer ends thereof (see Figure 4). The purpose in providing a plurality of slots in the hub 20 is to permit the position of the shaft 26 to be varied with respect to the center of the gear 24 for varying the angular velocity of the gear 21 at different portions of its cycleof rotation in a manner which will more clearly appear as this specification proceeds.

The shaft 20 is mounted at its ends in suitable anti-friction bearings 48, 48 which are in turn mounted at the upper ends of rocking members 49, 4S. Said rocking members are mounted on aligned shafts 50, 50 extending transversely of the housing l2 and mounted in the bottom portion thereof (see Figure 3).

It will be apparent from the foregoing that the spur gear 24 is mounted on the shaft 26 for rotation about an axis disposed eccentric of its center and that upon rotation of said gear it will move vertically in the guides 4|, 4| a distance determined by its eccentricity and the arc of movement of the rocking members 49, 49. This movement of said spur gear, although relatively slight, is sufficient to vary the rotational movement of the gear 21 in such a manner that if the crank 29 be directly connected to the conveyer trough 35 by means of one of the puller arms 35 in a manner similar to that illustrated in my prior application, Serial No. 706,787, filed January 15, 1934, now Patent No. 2,077,811, the acceleration of said trough would be varied to such an extent as to cause material to efficiently move therealong.

It should be apparent that the greater the eccentricity of the shaft 28, the greater the movement of the spur gear 25 in the guides 4|, 4|. This increased movement of said spur gear increases the variation in acceleration of the gear 27 driven thereby and increases the corrective effect imparted to the crank 29 and the intensity of the drive action of said crank. Accordingly, when it is desired to reduce the intensity of the drive action of said crank, it is only necessary to decrease the eccentricity of said gear.

When the lugs 45, 45 are in engagement with the slots 46a, 46a, as shown in Figures 5 and 6, the final drive action imparted to the conveyer trough will be similar to that indicated by curve A in Figure 9. This curve indicates that the acceleration of the trough 35 for a greater portion of its forward stroke is uniform and gradual, and that the deceleration of said trough for the remainder of the forward stroke is relatively rapid. This rapid deceleration indicates a rapid reversal in direction of travel of said trough which results in a relatively high rate of coal travel along the pan line, together with relatively high stresses in the conveyer drive mechanism and pan line when the pan line is over a certain predetermined length and weight.

This drive motion may be modified by engaging the lugs 45 in either of the slots 46b or 45c and reducing the eccentricity of the gear 24. Thus, when the lugs 45, 45 are in engagement with the slots 46b, 46b, as indicated by Figure 7,

the eccentricity of the shaft 26 will be reduced,

and the final drive motion will be similar to that indicated by curve B in Figure 9, and while the rate of acceleration of the conveyer trough will be increased a slight extent, the rate of deceleration will be decreased with a resultant decrease in coal travel and decreasein stresses on, the drive mechanism.

In a like manner, when the lug 45 engages the slot 460, as in Figure 8, the eccentricity of the shaft 26 will be further reduced and the acceleration of the conveyer trough will be similar to that indicated by curve C in Figure 9. It will be seen from this curve that the rate of deceleration of the pan line has been further reduced with the resultant reduction in the velocity of the coal travel and reduction of stresses on the pan line.

While I have herein shown and described one form in which my invention may be embodied, it will be understood that the construction and arrangement of the parts may be altered without departing from the spirit and scope of my invention. I do not, therefore, wish to be understood as limiting myself to the specific construction illustrated herein excepting as specifically limited in the appended claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a shaker conveyer operating mechanism and in combination with a reciprocably driven conveyer trough, means for driving said conveyer trough at a predetermined uniformly variable acceleration including a uniformly rotatable drive member and a member rotatably driven therebi at a predetermined variable angular velocity comprising a member journaled for rotational movement eccentric of its center, rocking means supporting said member, and a drive connection from said member to said conveyer trough including a member rotatably driven by saidmember.

2. In a shaker conveyer operating mechanism and in combination with a reciprocably driven conveyer trough, means for driving said conveyer trough at a predetermined uniformly variable acceleration including a uniformly rotatable drive member and a member rotatably driven thereby at a predetermined variable acceleration comprising a gear mounted for rotational movement about an axis eccentric of its center, and a rocking shaft forming a support means for said gear.

3. In a shaker conveyer operating mechanism and in combination with a reciprocably driven conveyer trough, means for driving said conveyer trough at a predetermined uniformly variable acceleration including a uniformly rotatable drive member, a guide, a gear driven by said drive member and slidably guided in said guide, and a rocking shaft forming a rotatable support for said gear eccentric of the center thereof.

4. In a shaker conveyer operating mechanism and in combination with a reciprocably driven conveyer trough, means for driving said conveyer trough at a predetermined uniformly variable acceleration including a uniformly rotatable drive member, a guide, an eccentrically mounted gear driven by said drive member and slidably guided in said guide, and means permitting the eccentricity of said gear to be changed, to change the conveying action of said conveyer trough.

5. In a shaker conveyer operating mechanism and in combination with a reciprocably driven conveyer trough, means for driving said conveyer trough at a predetermined uniformly variable acceleration including a uniformly rotatable drive member, a guide, an eccentrically mounted gear driven by said drive member and slidably guided therein, another gear meshed therewith and driven thereby, a crank driven by said lastnamed gear, and means permitting the eccentricity of said first-mentioned gear to be varied, for varying the conveying action of said conveyer trough.

6. In a shaker conveyer operating mechanism and in combination with a reciprocably driven conveyer trough, means for driving said conveyer trough at a predetermined uniformly variable acceleration including a uniformly rotatable drive member, a guide, a gear driven by said drive member and slidably guided in said guide, a shaft mounted for rocking movement about an axis spaced from and parallel to the axis of rotation of said gear, said shaft forming a support for said gear and being disposed eccentric of the center of said gear, and means permitting the position of said shaft with respect to the center of said gear to be changed, to vary the conveying action imparted to said conveyer trough.

'7. In a shaker conveyer operating mechanism and in combination with a reciprocably driven conveyer trough, means for driving said conveyer trough at a predetermined uniformly variable acceleration including a uniformly rotatable drive member, a rectilinear guide, a gear driven by said drivemember and slidably guided in said guide, a

shaft mounted for rocking movement about an.

axis spaced from and parallel to the axis of rotation of said gear, said shaft forming a support for said gear and being disposed eccentric of the center of said gear, another gear driven by said gear, a crank driven by said last-named gear having driving connection with said conveyer trough, for driving said conveyer trough, and means permitting the position of said shaft with respect to the center of said gear to be changed for varying the conveying action of said conveyer trough.

8. In a shaker conveyer operating mechanism and in combination with a reciprocably driven conveyer trough, means for driving said conveyer trough at a predetermined uniformly variable acceleration comprising a rocking member, a connection from said rocking member to said conveye-r trough, a crank, a connecting link connecting said crank with said rocking member, and means for driving said crank at a predetermined variable angular velocity comprising a uniformly rotatable drive member, a rectilinear guide, a gear mounted for rotation about an axis eccentric of its center, and guided in said guide, said gear being driven by said drive member and forming a drive member for said crank, for driving said crank at a predetermined variable angular acceland in combination with a reciprocably drivenconveyer trough, means for driving said conveyer trough at a predetermined uniformly variable acceleration comprising a rocking member, a connection from said rocking member to said conveyer trough, a crank, a connecting link connecting said crank with said rocking member, and means for driving said crank at a predetermined variable angular acceleration comprising a uniformly rotatable drive member, a guide, a gear rotatably driven by said drive member and slidably guided in said guide, a shaft forming a pivotal support for said gear eccentric of the center thereof, said shaft being mounted for pivotal movement about an axis spaced from and extending parallel to the axis of rotation of said gear, and a drive connection from said gear to said crank for driving said crank at a predetermined variable acceleration.

10. In a shaker conveyer operating mechanism and in combination with a reciprocably driven conveyer trough, means for driving said conveyer trough at a predetermined uniformly variable acceleration comprising a rocking member, a connection from said rocking member to said conveyer trough, a crank, a connecting link connecting said crank with said rocking member, and means for driving said crank at a predetermined variable angular velocity comprising a uniformly rotatable drive member, a guide, a gear rotatably driven by said drive member and slidably guided in said guide, a shaft forming a pivotal support for said gear eccentric of the center thereof, said shaft being mounted for pivotal movement about an axis spaced from and extending parallel to the axis of rotation of said gear, another gear meshed with said variably rotatable gear and driven thereby, said gear forming a means for rotatably driving said crank, and means for varying the conveying action of said conveyer trough comprising means permitting the shifting of the center of said gear with respect to said shaft and holding said gear in fixed relation with respect to said shaft.

11. In a shaker conveyer operating mechanism and in combination with a reciprocably driven conveyer trough, means for driving said conveyer trough at a predetermined uniformly variable acceleration comprising a rocking member, a connection from said rocking member to said conveyer trough, a crank, a connecting link connecting said crank with said rocking member, and means for driving said crank at a predetermined variable angular velocity comprising a uniformly rotatable drive member mounted for rotation about its center, a circular gear driven by said drive member, a rocking member, said gear being journaled on said rocking member for rotation about an axis eccentric of its center, and another gear mounted for rotation about its center and meshed with said last-mentioned gear and forming a drive member for said crank.

12. In a shaker conveyer operating mechanism and in combination with a reciprocably driven conveyer trough, means for driving said conveyer trough at a predetermined uniformly variable acceleration comprising' a rocking member, a connection from said rocking member to said conveyer trough, a crank, a connecting link connecting said crank with said rocking member, and means for driving said crank at a predetermined variable angular velocity comprising a uniformly rotatable drive member, a gear driven by said drive member, a shaft, said gear being mounted on said shaft for rotation about an axis disposed eccentric of its center, and said shaft being supported for rocking movement about an axis spaced from and disposed parallel to the axis of rotation of said gear, and another gear meshed with said last-mentioned gear and forming a drive member for said crank.

13. In a. shaker conveyer operating mechanism and in combination with a reciprocably driven conveyer trough, means for driving said conveyer trough at a predetermined uniformly variable acceleration comprising a rocking member, a connection from said rocking member to said conveyer trough, a crank, a connecting link connecting said crank with said rocking member, and means for driving said crank at a predetermined variable angular velocity comprising a uniformly rotatable drive member, a gear driven by said drive member, a shaft, said gear being mounted on said shaft for rotation about an axis disposed eccentric of its center, and said shaft being supported on a rocking member for rocking movement'about an axis spaced from and disposed parallel to the axis of rotation of said gear, a guide extending in the same general direction as said rocking member and having said gear slidably guided therein, and another gear meshed with said last-mentioned gear and forming a drive member for said crank.

14. In a shaker conveyer operating mechanism and in combination with a reciprocably driven conveyer trough, means for driving said conveyer trough at a predetermined uniformly variable acceleration comprising a rocking member, a connection from said rocking member to said conveyer trough, a crank, a connecting link connecting said crank with said rocking member,

and means for driving said crank at a predetermined variable angular velocity comprising a uniformly rotatable drive member, a gear driven by said drive member, a shaft, said gear being mounted on said shaft for rotation about an axis disposed eccentric of its center, and said shaft being supported for rocking movement about an axis spaced from and disposed parallel to the axis of rotation of said gear, a rectilinear guide forming a slidable guide for said gear, and another gear meshed with said last-mentioned gear and forming a drive member for said crank.

15. In a shaker conveyer operating mechanism and in combination with a reciprocably driven conveyer trough, means for driving said conveyer trough at a predetermined uniformly variable acceleration including a crank, and means for driving'said crank at a predetermined variable angular velocity comprising a uniformly rotatable gear mounted for rotation about its center, a circular gear meshed with said gear, a rocking member, said gear being journaled on said rocking member for rotation eccentric of its center, and another gear meshed with said last-mentioned gear, mounted for rotation about its center and forming a'drive member for said crank.

WILLIAM W. SLOANE. 

